The Party Comes Together
Return to Khand Durus was working on a White Lodge vessel on its way back from the East. Hinode didn't do well for himself in the East, and decided to try to make it well in the West (needs confirmation). Hinode looked to Durus for guidance in this new culture. Rognus was picked up somewhere along the way. I have no memory of why Securis would've been on the boat. Durus and Rognus became drinking buddies over the trip. Upon getting into town, they all did the logical thing and headed to the bar. Durus got his pay, and wanted to relax while catching up on the news. They learned that one week ago, a loud bang was heard, something large flew by and dropped a flaming object in the pent forrest. The large creature disappeared with another loud bang. The group also saw a strange group of men talking hurriedly while pointing at some papers and a map. One of their members ran in, told them something, and they all ran out without taking any of the papers. We looked them over, but didn't take them (first regret of the game). We later learned they were a group of pernese dragon riders tracking down their missing member. Meeting in Meifod So our group of 4 decided to take 1 week and sail down to Meifod to check out the news a little further. Our group realized that if we could find a dragon scale and sell it, we may be rich enough to live comfortably without working. Durus, having been poor most of his life, decided this was well worth the risk, and the others agreed. Our group of 4 went into the bar and started asking questions about the event, keeping to our theory it was a dragon and we might find a dragonscale. The barmaid, Ceridwyn, didn't take too kindly to all the questions, and wanted to know our motives. Another man was more welcoming, answering most of our questions. Durus wanted to go into the Pent forrest, but everyone said it was suicide. Eventually Quildëlócë invited the group of 4 to join their group, and his mission. The group consisted of Ceridwyn (the waitress), Quildëlócë (an elf of some kind), Velephia (a modern doctor arivee from Earth), and Zaran who was another elf being paid to guide the group to Chaeronea. A mercenary, Aka, was also recruited. She proved herself as a skilled mercenary while fighting Zaran. At some point she sustained injuries, and Velephia rushed to her aid. Nobody had seen a modern doctor practicing her craft before, and several onlookers at the bar were in awe of her skill. At some point, one of the patrons at the bar, a tough looking person, was giving Zaran some trouble (I think he was an orc of some kind?). That is, until Zaran decked him and pinned him to the floor. This person was more amiable after this. The newly created party decided to sleep at the inn. Durus reported his news to the nearby White Lodge, and was given orders to stay with the group. Ceridwyn and Durus decided to spy on Aka, who was acting a bit suspicious, claiming to be a psiarch without being part of the White Lodge openly. They watched her performing telepathy, confirming their suspicions. Falcharne In the morning, the party set off to an unknown destination. Bags were placed over our heads, so we wouldn't know where we were going. Either Ceridwyn or Aka used clair perception in order to see anyway. We ended up at some upscale Falsharnese place with a few buildings. The group began some early training in fighting with each other and got an early understanding of the rules of working with each other. We also were introduced to Milo, a Falsharnese thief, who joined up with the party. While the party was initially suspicious, Milo was welcomed soon enough anyway. Around now is when several secrets were revealed. Aka was communicating with her pernese dragon, colored white and named Shiroth. Durus was a close member of the White Lodge, and was a Were-Rat (and a plan was constructed to deal with that fact). Quildëlócë revealed that his real name was Kalæt Nambar. The settlement we were staying in was attacked by orcs. Right as that happened, we beat them back just enough to get out of there, and set off on our journey. The River We did some journeying around in the surrounding area, and I don't really remember the details. Admittedly my memory is extremely foggy about this specific point in time. What I do remember is an encounter near a river. Durus tried to barter passage across a river, since we didn't have a good way to cross, and there was a group set up with canoes to ferry people across. When a price was agreed upon, they began ferrying us across. What we didn't know was that every time we sent a load of horses by themselves, they sent them to an island in the river hidden by fog. Eventually we were all across and were missing our horses. They took the horses back to their encampment and began looting out bags. Aka and Shiroth made sure they gave us everything back... Arrow Birds Zaran made us aware that we had to climb to the top of a mountain. It would be a long journey, and we had to start at night. If we were caught there during the day, arrow birds would fly into the sky and rain death on our group. We had to make it to the top before they woke up. At the top was a godstone we could use to cover a ton of distance. We kept up a decently fast pace until we were near the top and it was getting to be light out. Zaran ordered us to run full speed. Durus collapsed from exhaustion, but made it on his horse (with some assistance?). Durus did lose "an object of significance to be determined later" but it was never determined later... I ever write this out in the future, I'll make him lose his trident since he gets a new one later anyway, and never used it between now and when he gets the new one. Hinode, Securis, and Ceridwyn weren't going to make it through before the first round of arrow birds fell. While Securis and Hidone readied their shields above their heads, Ceridwyn made a split-second decision and teleported the party through the portal... leaving her in a critical deficit of fatigue. Kalæt acted quickly with a fatigue point battery on his knife, and managed to save her (we continued to call him Quildëlócë for some time, partly because we weren't used to it, and partly because it became a running joke). She went into some form of shock, and I think took some damage, but ended up safely alive.